Judge Declares DOC ‘Cruel and Unusual’

A federal court ruled last week that the Indiana Department of Corrections has leveled cruel and unusual punishment on hundreds of inmates over the past several years. The court ruled the state should not have placed prisoners with severe mental illness is what are called segregation units. In segregation, prisoners are confined in small cells for 23 hours a day and allowed very little human interaction. For today’s WFHB feature exclusive, we talked with American Civil Liberties Union legal director Ken Falk, who led the legal effort challenging the state’s treatment of mentally ill prisoners. The interview begins with Assistant News Director Joe Crawford asking Falk to explain the judge’s ruling.